Isaiah 46:3-4 (HCSB)
3 “Listen to Me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.
4 I will be the same until ⌊your⌋ old age, and I will bear ⌊you⌋ up when you turn gray. I have made ⌊you⌋, and I will carry ⌊you⌋; I will bear and save ⌊you⌋.
We would all love to have someone carry our daily stuff around for us or better still carry us around. A burden-bearer is someone who decides that the load you are carrying is too much and heavy for you to bear, so takes that load on themselves to ease your pain and give you comfort. Nice right?
I have been carrying you on my back since you were born says the Lord to the Israelites in the message translation of Vs 3, and that’s what the Lord is saying to us even today.
There is a huge contrast between a god who is carried about by his worshippers and a God who carries His people around. It’s interesting that our God has been carrying us around and will continue to do so until old age, even forever.
The burden bearer has a good significance to motherhood as well, we see God’s maternal nature shine through with the image of a mother carrying her child on her back, through every situation, even in pain and discomfort, irrespective of how old that child is, no matter how big or heavy they become to have to be carried about.
Religions the world over is either that of fanaticism or a feel-good experience but the Christian faith is a relational involvement with God the Father through grace by faith which allows God to carry us tenderly through our earthly sojourn.
Religion and false God according to our text cannot care for its followers but expects obedience to its stringent laws and practices. Whilst our God, on the other hand, wants the best for us, cares for us and carries us through life.
As powerful as the Lord is, He cannot take your burden off you by force if you refuse to hand them to Him, that’s why He encourages us to lay them down, whatever the burdens may be, lay them at the foot of the cross, at Jesus’ feet according to 1 Peter 5:7 and Psalm 55:22.
Psalm 68:19 says God bears us up daily, not occasionally, sometimes, often, when we’re tired or when we need to be carried but consistently, constantly, and continually. Why would you give God a fraction of your issues, pain, and tears? He wants you to entrust everything to God to bear them for you.
You can only rest in Christ, not in crisis, life itself is full of drama and the prince of peace is beckoning to you to come to find and receive rest for life’s restless journeys according to Matthew 11:28.
Why would you choose to walk painfully when the Lord of Host is willing and ready to carry you?
An extract from the footsteps in the sand poem which I believe is the best way to describe the Lord as our burden bearer is.
He whispered, “my precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testing.
When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you”. Amazing! Even right now, you are in God’s arms.
Let God carry the burden, leaving you free to worship Him.
Shalom